Kosovo leaders agree early election after vote on army nixed

Kosovo's Prime Minister Hashim Thaci speaks to Reuters during an interview in Pristina March 27, 2014. REUTERS/Hazir Reka

PRISTINA (Reuters) - Leaders of Kosovo's main parties agreed on Tuesday to dissolve parliament this week and hold an early election on June 8 after Serb minority lawmakers nixed a vote on creating a national army by failing to show up.

Kosovo's Western backers, who recognised it as independent in 2008, had been reluctant to see the immediate creation of an army for fear of the message it might send to the more than 100,000 ethnic Serbs who live in the country and to Serbia itself.